The ramblings of a Creative Crone! I consider myself to be the Grandma Moses of the Fiber Arts World as I came to the art late in life. My blog will consist of my art; art of others; an occasional book review because when not creating, I am reading; perhaps an enlightening discussion on a favorite quote...and positive discussions of politics/world affairs only!

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

Challenge # 46 All Hallow's Eve

Since Monday (when the diva posts the new challenge for the week) was Halloween, the challenge was just that "All Hallow's Eve", the accurate name for the date. I wonder how many people really know the origin of Halloween...I heard a group on the tv saying they were campaigning to have the date changed to the last Saturday of October so the kiddies could stay out late and not have to worry about school the next day! That kind of messes up the real reason for Hallow's Eve! So I decided to bore everyone with the "real" story of Halloween! If you want to skip and go right to my new Zentangle just scroll down!

Halloween s origins go all the way back to Ancient times with the Celtic festival of Samhain. This was the Celt s version of a New Years Eve celebration honoring the end of summer and harvest time, and marking a period of cold, darkness, and death of winter. Celts believed that this end of the year time marked the time in which the barrier between the living and the dead became thin. On October 31st the spirits would come back from the dead and create havoc by damaging the crops with frost and causing a multitude of other troubles.

The Roman church soon enacted a holiday to detour the worship of spirits, and so proclaimed November 1st as All Saint s Day to honor the saints and martyrs of the church. This day was also known as All Hallows Eve. As the two religions began to mix much of the traditions of Samhain, such as dressing up in costumes and dancing around the fire, became one with All Hallows Eve to create Halloween.

Tradition has always been a part of Halloween from its very start. It s no wonder then that many of our traditions today came from this time period. An example of these traditions would be bobbing for apples. When Roman tradition mixed with Celtic tradition, so did their festivals. One festival near the time of Samhain was a day to honor the goddess of fruit trees, Pamona. Pamona is quite often symbolized as an apple, hence the modern day practice of bobbing for apples.

Trick or Treating is also a tradition of Halloween with early starts. Trick or Treating came from All Soul s Day parades in early England. The poor citizens of England would line up on the sides of the street as the richer members of the community paraded by and threw them pastries called soul cakes. The starving citizens would accept these cakes in exchange for praying for the richer class s dead family members.

Another tradition of Halloween is dressing up in costumes. This is another tradition that started in early England where citizens, knowing that Hallows Eve was a time for the spirits of their ancestors to come back and taunt them, would dress up in masks and costumes to keep the spirits from recognizing them.